How do you know when you can charge for your product

First, is it LEGALLY available freely?
Second, is it EASILY available freely?

What I can find easily is not necessarily what you can find easily. That's why I cut 28% off of one of my clients expenses for one of their departments this year. Because I knew how to source their needs better than their in house people.

Unfortunately, I didn't earn a bonus based on how much they saved. (I should have negotiated that first...)

You need to look at what you can provide, make sure that all the information you provide is useful and your finished product has value.

If you can't provide NEW information, can you provide a better explanation of the existing information?

If the available information is very dry and very mechanical (assuming you're teaching the customer something), can you make it easier to understand, something easier to learn? Make it something actionable?

The only time you know for sure you can price it, is when someone asks you how much is it going to cost me? But to judge for yourself when you feel it's ready for a price tag, is really up to you to decide. But a good measure is to ask yourself "If I am looking for this information, would I be willing to pay this amount for it?"

Unfortunately I doubt anyone will be able to give a definitive "when this happens, your product is ready for a price tag"

I would recommend the following:

1) A business isn't a business without customers. So FIRST build a list. (that is, of course, if you want to work in this niche long-term)

2) Send out several free reports to your list and get feedback.
--what do people like?
--what do people dislike?
--do people find your information valuable?
--would they like to find out more?

3) Once you've identified something that people find valuable, and want more of. Create a more in-depth ebook/video training series/etc. for your product. Then launch it to your list.

As Christ Farrell said "Be good to your list--and your list will be good to you".

Good luck,
--Jeff

P.S. Personally, I would recommend some kind of video training for beauty and cosmetics--it would be easy to make (just film yourself/a friend putting on make-up) and you could charge more for it (people typically find more value in video than in ebooks).

Also--why do you want to price it so low? Does the competition price their products at $5 or under? Five dollars is like nothing. Don't undervalue yourself--I'm sure you can provide more value than that.

P.P.S. If you don't follow the method outlined above, you can always find some beauty/cosmetics forums (just google it) and talk to people there. Find out what they want--and how much they'd be willing to pay for it. Then you can avoid the list-creation process altogether.

thanks guys. You've given me some ideas here.

Yes, Scott it's all perfectly legal information.

Workingtofreedom: I'm not sure how to price things just yet. I just thought $5 would be really affordable for everyone, but maybe I should consider charging more (dependent on how the final product turns out)

I know I can charge for it, when I decide to put a price tag on it.

The bigger question is whether the marketplace will purchase it at the designated price. That is a harder question to answer.

First I figure out the strength of the want, to see how many people are asking the question.

Then I try to decide how badly people want it. That will determine if I can get the price I want.

The final test is whether people buy it at the price I advertise.

Welcome to the forum, Bob. It's been a long time since I've seen a "first post" in that league.

This is a very good reason to want to charge something for it, in my opinion.

However, if its purchasers are all going to know that, some may resent paying a high price for it, and if they do, then they're no longer really "better quality buyers" from your perspective.

Hi FM,

I am also in the process of creating my product as well. My advice is to think about it as you progress. To explain a bit more I firstly decided to give my product free of charge, however the more i developed the book I realized that the content I am providing is valuable, needed, and immediately applicable in my niche.

In fact I started thinking about how many years of experience I was putting into it and it's over a decade of learning all in one place. The next thing that crossed my mind was when I was first starting out. If this product was available then how much would I pay for it? I still haven't come up with a final price but I know I want it to be less than $20 but more than $15. However this may change the more I develop.

So my advice is to dwell on it once the product is near it's completion, also you might want to think about possible add on or continuation products that would complement your original work. I did and I have a full product line in the works now. I know you said you couldn't bring anything new to the works but I wouldn't say that just yet. My product first started out as freely available info and now it's all original content, so don't think you have nothing to contribute.

This is some great information on product creation and what to charge.

Where does everyone get ideas on what product to create?

To answer the question: when I finish creating it.

Now, before creating the product you want to make sure people will want it ( by doing at least basic market research)

Why don't you figure out what the biggest frustration of your market is?

If you have a hungry market... or simply by trial and error... I have one of my products that I sell for $9.90 a piece... and then I have that same exact product on another totally different portal as a free hook to build my list...

right time is when he wants to pay!!